West Side Story
Gee, Officer Krupke, West Side Story is 50.
Not many musicals make musical history. Once the template is set – the hoofing, the ballads, the knees-up at the end – you know the score, and instant familiarity beats innovation.
But the 1957 production that unleashed Bernstein’s fizzing West Side Story on an unprepared Broadway audience threw out the old formulas. And it wasn’t just a flashy composer’s triumph: the great strength of West Side Story lay in its totality: a show where all the artistic elements blended to produce something that Broadway audiences genuinely couldn’t classify.
I have my mother to thank for my appreciation of this classic musical. It was her favorite and it has become mine as well. The Times Online article mentioned something about a new recording to be released on August 13 and hopefully it makes its way to Amazon.
And here’s hoping that special DVD will be released when the movie turns 50 four years from now.
